Russell Means

Russell Means (10 November 1939-22 October 2012) was a Lakota Native American rights activist and libertarian politician. He was a US Libertarian Party's 1987 presidential candidate (losing the primary to Ron Paul) and a New Mexico gubernatorial candidate in 2001.

Biography
Russell Means was born on the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota in 1939, and his family moved to the San Francisco area in 1942. He became a prominent member of the American Indian Movement after joining the organization in 1968, and he helped to organize nationally-covered events for the AIM. He also worked with the United Nations to improve the lives of Native Americans in Central and South America as well. Since the late 1970s, he came to support several libertarian causes, and he was the US Libertarian Party's vice-presidential nominee in 1983 and a failed presidential primary candidate in 1987. In 2001, he led a failed independent campaign for Governor of New Mexico. Means was involved with protests against the Iraq War and Israel into the 2000s, and he claimed that Barack Obama's presidency was George W. Bush's third term due to America's continued role in the Afghanistan War. He died in Rapid City, South Dakota in 2012.